Human Rights Quarterly

ABSTRACT:

The Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights represents a milestone in efforts to redress the imbalance in justiciability mechanisms for economic, social, and cultural rights at the international level. Six years after the Optional Protocol entered into force, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has an opportunity to develop the foundations of both its admissibility and merits jurisprudence. This article analyzes its evolving jurisprudence in light of the imperative to build the normative legitimacy of the Committee's work under the Optional Protocol. The challenge of navigating the tensions between respecting the sovereignty of states in the realm of domestic budgetary and social policy decisions and intervening to require accountability for economic, social, and cultural rights violations lies at the heart of the normative legitimacy of the Committee's jurisprudence. Based on a close analysis of its emerging jurisprudence, it is argued that the Committee has developed sound admissibility criteria, and a solid model of review to guide it in applying the reasonableness standard in Article 8(4) of the Optional Protocol. This jurisprudential approach has enabled the Committee to chart a skillful course thus far between sovereignty and accountability. This bodes well for strengthening the normative legitimacy of the Optional Protocol and advancing the broader project of the justiciability of economic, social, and cultural rights.